In 1959 the Dalai Lama escaped to India from Tibet. Since that time tens of thousands of Tibetans have found asylum in India.  Clement Town, is a Tibetan district of Dehradun.

In 2007, I visited the World Peace Stupa in Dehradun and spent an afternoon at there with Rageev Tyagi, a fellow yogi. Marvelous wall paintings in pure gold, illustrate the life of Lord Buddha. It took 50 artists  three years to paint the walls. Every floor has a Buddha effigy and Gurupadmasambhava’s statue, highlighting the essence of Indian Buddhism.

The stupa remains a landmark seed for my artwork influencing how I see and interpret repetitive images and the sacredness of the human container. The Yoga Stupa Exhibit at Atlantic Works Gallery in Boston, (see my website for images) was directly inspired by the sense-around experience of being in the Clement Town Stupa.

Buddha says: All relative and ultimate happiness of sentient beings results through the understanding of the interdependency of cause and effect.

Gate to Little Tibet
Mindrolling སྨིན་གྲོལ་གླིང་དགོན་པ་ monastic retreat established in Dehradun in 1965; the stupa built in 2000.
Rageev’s car with prayer flags in background.
Before entering the stupa area visitors check their shoes.
The only sign in English!
A stupa is said to bring great benefit to the land and immense blessings to anyone who beholds it.
A serene section of the surrounding 2-acre landscaped garden.
Inside the temple, the ground level shrine-room is dedicated to Padmasambhava.

 


Every nook and cranny inside the stupa is highly decorated with Buddha images,
which are made of undoubtedly wondrously sacred substances. When entering a temple, visitors always move along the right side in temples, since this action represents deep reverence for the Buddha.
Everywhere you look you see more, thousands of buddhas on each wall.
Buddhas of the Good Kalpa behind the Life-Force Tree.

Buddha Shakyamuni Shrine Room.
Extraordinary dharanis.
Offerings
Outside in the garden: row of altars
The Great Stupa is 185 feet tall. It is the world’s largest stupa and a magnificent example of buddhist art and architecture.
Five Sciences University Students study to preserve the unbroken Tibetan Buddhist lineage so that they can pass on the knowledge to the next generation

In addition to having the world tallest stupa, the town now houses Ngagyur Nyingma College, one of the largest Buddhist institutes in India.